Torres is a popular chap

The image painted of Fernando Torres since his arrival at Stamford Bridge must be totally redrawn. We've been sold a story of the sulky, surly grump, whose £50m arrival from Liverpool in January shattered Chelsea's unity and almost derailed their season – which has only recovered after the Spaniard was relegated to the bench, where he has sulked ever since, friendless and feckless. A man whose talent had disappeared, and whose increasingly brief appearances brought nothing but further humiliation upon himself and anyone who considered him worthy of acquisition. The only positive impact he had at Stamford Bridge, it seemed, was to motivate Didier Drogba.

Piffle, as it turns out. Torres's goal drought ended after 732 minutes, the Spaniard keeping his feet when all around were losing theirs and scoring against West Ham with a sweet left-footed strike from 12 yards. A more collective outpouring of joy one could not hope to see. "There was," said Salomon Kalou, "a lot of happiness." SB

Di Santo can score after all

Franco Di Santo is the antithesis of an impact striker. The Argentinian, in his three and a bit years in England, has scored two goals in 64 league and cup appearances. As anyone with the slightest talent for mental arithmetic will tell you, that's a Torres-shaming one goal every 32 games. And the funny thing is that his shooting accuracy (60% over 20 shots this season, of which 12 have been on target) is the sixth best in the league (of those players who have had at least as many shots).

There are a few excuses – 34 of those of those appearances have come as a substitute, he has finished only eight of the 30 games he has started, and he still has the excuse of youth – he turned 22 this month – but he seems to have enjoyed sufficient opportunities to strut his striking stuff, but without doing much striking. Or strutting. Sure, he can be relied upon to work hard, to put himself about a bit, and he can run pretty quickly for a big guy, but he has scored twice.

What's more, he has never beaten a goalkeeper – the one-goal reward for his season on loan at Blackburn, reaped against Burnley in October 2009, was headed in from four yards after Brian Jensen fell over (though there was an extremely classy assist for David Dunn in the same game), and then on Saturday he slid in at the far post to grab his side a last-minute consolation, after Victor Moses's low cross had taken the Sunderland goalkeeper, Simon Mignolet, out of the game.

That's 64 games, two goals, from a combined total of six yards and without ever beating a goalkeeper. We'd like to congratulate Di Santo on his first goal for Wigan, while wondering whether any striker has ever done worse. SB

You don't need strikers

Even worse news for Di Santo (and Torres) was Saturday's discovery that teams can do perfectly well with no strikers at all. The last time Sunderland scored four Premier League goals in a single game was against Bolton last March, and two of those goals came after Sam Ricketts's dismissal reduced the Trotters to 10 men. This was another level of success, and three of Saturday's foursome came with no strikers on the pitch at all, both Danny Welbeck and Asamoah Gyan having been injured.

Regular readers of Jonathan Wilson's popular tactical blogposts won't be surprised by the Sunderland's strikerless success, a phenomenon he wrote about in 2008. "A system with no forwards places a premium on fast, accurate passing through the midfield," he wrote, and with Stéphane Sessègnon and Jordan Henderson both on song, the Mackems had that. They also had the great advantage of playing Wigan, of course. SB

Cox made us wait a long time before offering an excuse to watch this goal again

"You can make exceptions for certain players because experience is so valuable," Ferguson said. "We thought the same when we signed Michael Owen, who has been a terrific professional for us." Sentiment and being a model pro around Carrington is not enough, though, and Owen showed during his cameo against Everton that he can still be a valuable option for United.

His clever runs off the ball and his eye for the best position to take up in the box when the ball was on either flank demonstrated his intelligence, occupying the space between one full-back and centre-half, allowing the threat of a midfield runner to distract the other centre-back and making space for Javier Hernández, usually at the far post.

It would be foolish to suggest that Owen retains the pace or wonderfully quick feet that are the Mexican's chief weapons alongside his devastating heading ability, but if United's best partnership features Chicharito and Rooney behind him, Owen is a far more suitable deputy for the young prodigy in that system than Dimitar Berbatov.

Owen demonstrates a selflessness that has replaced the greed of the out-and-out poacher he once was. That maturity and enduringly cunning movement may not earn him a new contract at Manchester United but it will persuade other Premier League managers that he still has a lot to contribute. RB